Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1847 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER X. THE ABORIGINES OF AUSTRALIA, AND ESPECIALLY OF COOKSLAND. Nulli certa domus; lucis habitamus opacis, Riparumque toros, et prata recentia rivis Incolimus.--Viro. JEn., vi. 675. In no fix'd place the happy souls reside;. In groves we live, and lie on mossy beds By crystal streams that murmur through the meads. Drvden's Virgil. The existence and distribution of the Papuan Negro or Black Race of the South-eastern Hemisphere, is one of the most mysterious facts in the history of man. Most people are aware that the Aborigines of the vast continental island of New Holland are of a black colour, and bear some resemblance to the African negro; but very few comparatively are aware of the vast extent of that portion of the surface of the habitable globe which this ancient and singular race have roamed over from time immemorial, and of which they have unquestionably been the Aboriginal inhabitants. Long before European navigators had discovered New Holland and Van Dieman's Land, in the early part of the 17th century, they had occupied, and parcelled out among their wandering tribes, the whole extent of these vast regions, which are nearly as large as all Europe. They are still the only inhabitants of the large islands of New Guinea, New Britain, New Ireland M. Freycinet, in his " Voyage aux Terres Australes," page 107, estimates the superficial extent of New Holland at 384. 375, and that of Europe at 501. 875 French leagues. and New Caledonia; of the Mallicollo Islands, or New Hebrides, as well as of many of the other islands of the Western Pacific, both northward and southward of the Equator, and of the Indian Archipelago. In many of these islands indeed they have been subdued and extirpated by the fairer race from the westward; but in...
